pee-yew, that's stinky

In other parts of the world, biosolids (human waste) from sewage treatment plants are treated and used as sustainable agricultural fertilizer. Research the pros and the cons of this method and take a stand as to whether this can be realistic alternative to our current agricultural practices. Who are the potential stake golders in this issue? Are we influenced by the western view of human waste as an unsanitary and disgusting nuisance?
What are biosolids? Well, I'll be honest with you. I had no clue at all to what it was until I saw the brackets beside it in the unit guide which said (human waste). Whoops. But most likely, I did some research on it, and I found a proper term for this "Biosolid" word. Biosolid is a term used by the waste water industry to denote the byproduct of domestic and commercial sewage and waste water treatment. They are known as nutrient-rich organic materials resulting from the treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment facility. Basically, when the waste is treated processed, the excess residual can be recycled in a use of fertilizer to improve the soil and to stimulate the plant growths. Pros & Cons of this topic? Let's just narrow this down into short easy points for everyone to read rather than super long paragraphs for each and every point! Get ready!

Pros

1. Creates jobs
2. It is a cost effective method of disposal
3. Recycles versus filling landfills
4. Promotes farming
5. Reduces emissions from transportation to landfills
6. Good free fertilizer
   
7. Land Reclamation
8. It's regulated according to EPA law 503

Cons

1. Potential health hazard
2. Effects irreversible
3. Contamination resulting from accumulation of industrial waste
4. Its true composition is unknown
5. May contain hazardous chemicals
6. Possibly transferable to crops
7. Decreases property value
8. Not sufficiently regulated
9. Odor (gross...)

After considering all the pros and the cons given from above, I still feel that this topic is constantly being discussed among many people on whether or not it is good or not. It is obvious that each and everyone have their own thoughts and points of view on this, but I constantly feel that this can cause so many concerns throughout the health risks. From using the human waste that's pretty much recycled in our soil, I feel that if you think closely towards it, it's truly disgusting. Now, just imagine using the human waste soil in planting ourselves vegetables or fruits that we will later on consume. Now there are also the ones who agree strongly with the pros and how biosolids are probably good for the earth. Since we are recycling and nowadays, everything is about recycling and what not. It may be beneficial for the agriculture and for the environment mostly because biosolids reduce the need for chemical fertilizing and it is also free, which saves a lot of money for farmers and agricultural people.

My thoughts on this topic is that maybe biosolids are truly something that will help farmers due to the free of charge and not having the need to use chemical fertilizers. But, in my opinion, I just fee like as if, this can be a really risky health concern. We do not know exactly what's clean. It also gives me the chill to even take of having biosolids (human waste) in my backyard garden. Imagine the smell and everything, I think that I'd gag every single time I stepped outside to check the weather. This definitely isn't a pleasant thought for you readers, but hey, I'm just trying to find ways into not promoting this. It is certain that after my reaction on this topic, I definitely feel that we all are influenced by the western on the unsanitary and disgusting nuissance. These are my thoughts and opinions based on this topic, but along with the pros and the cons, it is really easy to fall under the others influence. I personally feel like people will find this very disgusting and disturbing, but at the same time they don't exactly understand what's the real potential benefits that biosolids could change our environment.

Now what are your points of view on this topic? Do you agree more towards the Pros or the Cons?

Sources
http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/qa/105-1focus/focusbeauty.html
http://www.compost.org/Biosolids_Composting_FAQ.pdf
http://www.barwonwater.plenaryprojects.com/assets/newsitems/Barwon-Biosolids-bulletin-vol2.pdf
http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Sewage-Sludge-Pros-Cons.htm
http://www.cwwa.ca/faqbiosolids_e.asp

The Importance of Techology

When I was given this topic to research about, I instantly thought of the TV shows like Grey's Anatomy and House. Now, why would I think that, right? Well, maybe because every single episode contains surgery, and within the process of surgery there are technological usage like for example, that screen-like computer that surgeons look at to make sure every procedure is done correctly. Or even think about the heartbeat monitor to keep track of how moderate the patient's heart rate is building. It's actually very interesting that Doctors and Scientists investigate and research each and every day in making better technology that will help each and every individual in this world. I personally find that without the various technologies that were discovered, people would not have artificial pacemakers or prosthetic devices, etc. I'm highly sure that without the scientists who have came up with the following costly products in saving people's lives, our death rate would be higher than now by far.

When humans are given the ability of life; they were never made to be the perfect one. Each and every single person in this world may suffer from a range of a little to alot of defects that are thrown in their way. This is the whole situation to why scientists step in and take the charge of creating technological devices in helping the human bodies in producing and performing properly. Without these technological devices, humans may not even be able to survive past their mid 60s due to the lack of health and a lot due to the environmental changes that are happening through out the life span of the universe.

Now moving along, lets give examples to how technology has been helping out and solving the many difficulties that are thrown at the surgeons and doctors' everyday life in trying their best in saving those who are severely sick. One of the most popular side defects that are known in society around the world are heart disorders. Especially in Canada and the States, heart attacks are mostly known as one the the disorders that kill many humans. This is due to the fact that they consume so many fattening foods like fast food because of busy hours; which clogs their arteries and makes their heart to start malfunctioning. This can happen also with those who have a family background of heart disorders.

One of the major technological devices was invented by Albert S. Hyman (1893 - 1972), a New York cardiologist, together with his brother Charles, constructed in 1930-1932 an electro-mechanical device which was one of the earliest artificial pacemakers. The device was, reportedly, tested on experiment animals and at least one human patient. What is a pacemaker? Well this is exactly how the first implantable pacemaker made looked like. A pacemaker is a small device that's placed in the chest or abdomen to help control abnormal heart rhythms. This device uses electrical pulses to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate. Pacemakers are used to treat arrhythmia (ah-RITH-me-ahs). Arrhythmia is the problem with the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat. During an arrhythmia, the heart can beat too fast, too slow, or with an irregular rhythm.

Pacemakers also can monitor and record your heart's electrical activity and heart rhythm. Newer pacemakers can monitor your blood temperature, breathing rate, and other factors and adjust your heart rate to changes in your activity.They can be temporary or permanent. Temporary pacemakers are used to treat temporary heartbeat problems, such as a slow heartbeat that's caused by a heart attack, heart surgery, or an
overdose of medicine.

Another technological invention that is truly important to our society nowadays is Insulin. Frederick Banting, who was a great scientist was the one who discovered Insulin which is truly a Canadian medical miracle during the 20th century. Considering the health issues and all the foods that humans consume nowadays, insulin is one that helps the most in trying to solve our everyday problems. During his research, he learned that insulin is a hormone that regulates glucose levels in the body and stops fat from being used as energy. Those who have high levels of insulin use fat as a major source of energy. On top of that insulin causes cells in the liver to receive glucose in the blood stream. Those with type one diabetes take insulin shots because their body is unable to produce this hormone naturally. Ironically, it is known that the most important inventions were all made accidental. Alike to this one, insulin was also an accidentally finding that has opened the door in teaching everyone why people are suffering from high glucose, or even from diabetes. His discovery of insulin increases our knowledge of the whole digestive system and aids roughly 150 million diabetics around the world.

As you think about it, there are plenty more inventions that are so important to humans’ every lives. I'm highly sure that without the scientists who have came up with the following costly products in saving people's lives, our death rate would be higher than now, by far.The fact of not having anymore medicines, technological devices used in surgeries, the rate of people dying will constantly grow by day. Doctors will not be able to save others, and scientists would not be known. Like I said from earlier, not every single person is born to be perfect; each and every one of us all contain some sort of a defect. In conclusion, this is why technological devices are so important in human life and we need these inventions to be invented and shared among the whole world. On the end note, technology devices is obviously important for the things we cannot do to cure or fix something that is a defect, but it all comes to the way we treat our bodies. Everyone must remember to drink at least 8 glasses a day, and to eat healthier. Which means, more fruits and vegetables that are filled with delicious and fibrous nutrients. Mmmm mmmm good.

Sources:
-http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/pace/pace_whatis.html
- http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/alberthyman.aspx
- http://search.intelius.com/Albert-Hyman
- http://www.discoveryofinsulin.com/Home.htm
- http://www.medicinenet.com/insulin/article.htm

It's like ..everything's artificial nowadays.

Each and every day, people are finding ways in making their everyday life something perfect along with perfect surroundings too; which include products for perfection (make-up) or even the food that we consume. It may be hard to believe, but alike to the earlier blog entry about "Designer Babies", this is the exact typical way farmers, and scientists use in making the perfect, fresh plants, fruits and vegetables or even injecting hormones into animals like pigs and cows for more meat. People have been artificially selecting domesticated plants and animals for thousands of years. These activities have amounted to large, long-term, practical experiments that clearly demonstrate that species can change dramatically through selective breeding.

Artificial selection is the process of changing the characteristics of animals by artificial means. For example, like animal breeders, they are often able to change the characteristics of domestic animals by selecting for reproduction those individuals with the most desirable qualities such as speed in racehorses, milk production in cows, trail scenting in dogs. Even for the food we eat, they are genetically enhanced with hormones which make the cows, pigs, chickens and other produces to be bigger, meatier, and to produce more.
The results of artificial selection are very easy to see. The domestication cycle of canines being bred by their owners in order to emphasize less-aggressive traits has gone on for thousands of years. It has resulted in many different breeds that look almost nothing like their gray wolf ancestors. For examples:

1. The dairy cattle, who are bred in hopes of producing more milk, but some lines now suffer from increased infections and fertility problems.
2. Persian cats, that are bred for extremely flat faces often develop many respiratory problems and may have trouble eating. All of the listed traits that are bred for do not help the animals survive in the wild, but do make them more desirable to their owners.

Now moving along, let's talk about artificial selection in plants. Over the many years, the plants with desirable characteristics are grown by farmers; with the coming years approaching the numbers of farmers are increasing more and more. Meanwhile, plants without these characteristics are less likely to survive as they are not provided with the fertilizers and pesticides by farmers. Eventually, the species of the plant will evolute. In agriculture, superior strains of corn, wheat, and soybeans have resulted from careful breeding. For example:

1. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, collards, and kale are all members of the same species, Brassica oleracea.
2. Gardeners have cultivated flowers such as roses and orchids, carefully manipulating heredity to produce the “perfect” hybrid.
3. Teosinte and its modern descendant, corn, which is a product of artificial selection.

Now lastly, in my opinion, I found that artificial selection isn't as ridiculous as "designer babies". I mean, there are the reasons in which that scientists and farmers may be pushing their limits or even reaching their limits in how much they are using/building up on this. I truly love the fact that they can make an hybrid of some sort of plant into making another plant, but I just found that the animal artificial selection is slightly cruel. I just wanted to finish this blog entry, by stating how unfair it is for us humans to enhance or even think of giving more hormones to animals in fulfilling our needs.

sources
- http://library.thinkquest.org/C0118084/Gene/Genetic_variation/artificialselection.htm
- http://www.biology-online.org/2/12_selective_breeding.htm
- http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/lines/IVAartselection.shtml
- http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-artificial-selection.htm
- http://www.learner.org/courses/essential/life/session5/closer1.html

Design - a - baby ?

"Hello there! So what brand would you like your baby to have? Chanel, Gucci, Prada?"

First off, I never knew anything about this topic until i read the many articles on it. Does everyone know what this is? Well for those of you who are alike to me, and did not know anything about this topic, "Designer babies" is the term being used by the media to describe the future of modifying or selecting our children genes for desirable characteristics (medical and cosmetic). They are referred to a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilisation to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics. Having this; it allows us in choosing which genes we would want our children to obtain during the birth process. As we slowly grow up and get older, we start to realize more flaws; we try to cover up with make up like concealer, blush, foundation, eye liner etc. Not knowing that scientists have come up with a new found investment "Designer Babies". I found this really shocking for the fact that this is something really magical. Don't get me wrong, but designing your own baby to look like what you prefer it to look like? WOW, talk about amazing.

I would want my child to:
- have the most gorgeous eyes ever,
- have luscious, shiny hair
- be tall
- nice teeth, nice smile
- have amazing talents artistically and creatively
- be good looking, smart with all the great personalities

To be honest, I'm probably only saying this now because I'm so amazed, but in my opinions, when i do have my own children. I would not even think about this, never ever think about this. I don't think that I'd really want the PERFECT child. I would really want children who have flaws and ones that can help each and everyone of us grow a stronger relationship.

Moving along with this topic, it's basically been the hit talk of 2009. All around the world, there are people talking about it and actually considering to get it done for their own children. I mean, there are of course the pros and cons to it which people go through before deciding with the exact features they want their children to carry. It's obvious that when parents-to-be consider the fact that they would never know how their children would turn out; some may lean towards the side of actually considering designer babies. Reasons of why people may chose this is because, you can never know how your children will turn out. I'm personally not talking about physically but I'm talking about the fact that some children develop disorders during the process of reproduction. Disorders like Down Syndrome and Klinfelter syndrome are possible during the processes which many parents are worried about when having children. It was said that this technology has already been used to avoid 200 different kinds of diseases that are known and specified during these processes.



In conclusion to all the articles I've read, I strongly disagree with this technological process of changing and deciding on your own of how your children will be. I mean for cosmetic reasons, it's pathetic. Being a parent, you're supposed to accept the fact that you'll love your children no matter what they do, how they look like and everything about them. By looking over the pros and cons, you can say that some people may go through this expensive process of "designing" their own babies to avoid certain disorders and illnesses. I'll strongly approve of that, but anything else is obviously a big no no. Like picking its gender, personality, physical appearances and even IQ ? I find that just pathetic, and inconsiderate for the reasons of why we should love our future children for who they really are, not some robot or dolls or some sort that we've chose.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989987-1,00.html
http://www.bionetonline.org/English/content/db_cont1.htm
http://www.gender-selection.com/?gclid=CIDwq4LIjZ8CFdA65QodnV5BRQ
http://www.readersdigest.ca/mag/2001/09/designer_babies.html
http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/bio/great-designer-baby-controversy-%E2%80%9909
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123439771603075099.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/10/30/designer.babies/

are we REALLY stewards ? ...

Over the years, have you noticed how rapidly the numbers of human beings increased? Well, this is obviously something good, but at the same time .. we're taking over the world. As the population increases, we tend to take over more and more space; the more people we have, the more buildings we need. So being "stewards" like us, we decide to take over the animals' and plants' habitats, instead of trying to protect them.

In my opinion, as we are doing this, I don't think it ever comes to our minds that this may affect the habits of these species. If animals start to become extincted, they will lose all biodiversity. For everyone who does not know what biodiversity is, it is defined as the sum of an area's genes, species, and ecosystems. The better an area's biodiversity, the tougher their immune system. Since biodiversity includes not only one type of species, this specie will contain all the inherent genetic variations; which will *for example* make an army to defend the different types of diseases.

Now imagine this, you're dehydrated and you feel like you're bodies shrinking, your skin's puckering, your eyes are receded into orbits and your tongue starts to swell up and crack. As time goes by, your brain cells start to shrivel up and your muscles are seize. Then your kidneys shut down. Your blood volume drops, triggering a hypovolemic shock, you cannot breath anymore and suddenly you go into cardiac arrest. Shockingly this may seem, this is what happens when everything in your body starts to fail, in other words, this is what happens when you die. According to a United Nations report on the state of the global environment, they have estimated that there are more than 11,000 endangered animal and plant species - including more than 1,000 mammals which is almost a quarter of the world's total. Do you realize how terrible this is?

For example, the other day, i came along an article that said:

"Siberian tigers may vanish within three decades" - Corinne Podger.

Three decades is actually a really short time period. Would you like to know why Siberian tigers are becoming extincted? This is because we, human beings chose the wrong choice into being poachers. This is mainly a big problem in Suklaphanta, which is situated close to Mahendranagr on the Indian border. The current political and economic situation has resulted in an accelerated exploitation of resources in the region, among which poaching currently represents the most immediate threat to wildlife. There are rapid increasing numbers of tigers that are killed for their pelt and tiger parts, especially bones. (which are then sold for USD 3,000-5,000+ as attractive items) Thanks to poaching, habitat loss, and population fragmentation, the population of the Siberian tiger has vastly decreased. In fact, there are only about 450 of them left in the wild. As the population of tigers decrease, the less variation the cubs will obtain due to biodiversity. Since the cubs do not obtain various types of genetics which are immune to some sickness, these cubs may die easily due to lack of food in the foodchain, diseases and other causes.

With many different types of species becoming extincted day by day, our food chain will eventually end and we will eventually die too.. If we really want to be stewards of of the world, we should stop being so selfish, and actually consider helping out and trying to fix the problems we have caused in this world.



http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/animal-extinction--the-greatest-threat-to-mankind-397939.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2000325.stm

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Siberian-Tiger-Populations-Drop-89150.shtml

http://www.panda.org/who_we_are/wwf_offices/russia/projects/?uProjectID=RU0005

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/siberian-tiger.html